75% of Tata Communications' Rs 4077 Cr revenues came from data in Q2FY19

Tata Communications has reported a marginal increase of 3.5% YoY in its consolidated revenues for Q2FY19. In the quarter ended September 2018, revenues grew to Rs 4077 crore on the back of growing data services. Revenues in Q2FY18 was Rs 3937 crore.

In the quarter, consolidated EBITDA was Rs 630 crore, which marked a growth of 7.4% QoQ, largely due to driving down costs and reduction of losses in Growth services. Compared to the same quarter last year (YoY), EBITDA was higher by 6%. Capital expenditure (Capex) for the quarter was $65 million as compared to $72 million in the last quarter.

Tata Communications also acquired Netherlands–based Teleena, an IoT and mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE) company in October. It was already the largest stakeholder in Teleena with a 35% stake. After the acquisition, the number of devices ordered under IoT in India has increased to 61,873 from 39,450 devices ordered in Q1FY19.

The comparisons are with Q1FY19 (quarter ended June 30, 2018), i.e. before Tata Communications acquired Teleena. The numbers for Q1FY19 here.

Segment revenues

Data – Revenue for the quarter from the data business was Rs 3069 crore, up by 9.1% YoY and 5.2% QoQ. Data EBITDA for the quarter stood at Rs 382 crore, an increase of 10% YoY and 4.1% QoQ, the company said the growth was due to Growth services resulting in a neutral EBITDA.

Voice – For voice, gross revenue for the quarter was Rs 999 crore, which marked a substantial decline of 30% YoY and 2.6% QoQ.

In March 2017, voice accounted for 35.2% of the company’s revenue and data for 64.8%. A year later in September 2018, the shares have changed, in line with the global shift to data, as voice now accounts for 24.5% of the revenue while data accounts for a massive 75.4%. The increased revenue from data also commands change in the company’s expenditure. Voice EBITDA was Rs 92.7 crore in the quarter.

Usage metrics

Data traffic carried by Tata Communications for Q2FY19 was 11 terabytes per month this quarter, up from 8.64 terabytes per month in Q2FY18. Traditional services and growth services contributed 65.6% and 22% of the data revenue. Traditional services include virtual private network, internet protocol, national and international private line, among others.

Total volume of voice calls was 7.7 billion minutes in Q2FY19 as compared to 10.5 billion minutes in Q2FY18. Notably, a large chunk of voice minutes were international long distance calls, 6.9 billion minutes for Q2FY19.